The History of the Branchweilerhof: Family Crests

FAMILY CRESTS

" The oldest Lichti-crest we know of is from the year 1338.  This crest was found by Arthur Lichti (who we don't know but most likely he is from the Kisselhöfer line) from Saarlouis in Books at the University Library of Munich.  The same crest is also found in the Screen printers Crest makers (Band 5, Fol. 7, Tafel 70) with three green mountains on blue background and 3 gold stars.  The text does not give us much information about the history of the crest.  The Helmet above the crest is what was called then a Pot helmet.  The decoration on the helmet is a grain crown and in the center, on an angle, is placed a spade.  Over the spade handle is draped a neck cloth in the Lichti colors.  Already distinctly present are all the main features of all known Lichti crests.  Those features are the three gold stars on blue shield, in the base of the shield (stylized) the three green mountains (representing the mountains Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau in Switzerland.  From the added text we can conclude that the Lichti colors are yellow and blue.  It is somewhat unclear if our Anabaptist ancestors from Switzerland had family crests.  Although it is known that the Emmenthaler Farmers had crests and the design was used to mark there grain sacks.  Therefore it is very possible that our ancestors also accepted and used crests.  Yet one has to keep in mind that our ancestors where Anabaptists and because of there religious believes may not accepted the use of crests.  Therefore it is not likely that our Lichti ancestors had crests.

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